Friday, November 6, 2009

END NOTE

NOTE

Seven years ago we all went through the flames. And the happiness of some of us since then is, we think, well worth the pain we endured. It is an added joy to Mina and to me that our boy's birthday is the same day as that on which Quincey Morris died. His mother holds, I know, the secret belief that some of our brave friend's spirit has passed into him. His bundle of names links all our little band of men together. But we call him Quincey.

In the summer of this year we made a journey to Transylvania, and went over the old ground which was, and is, to us so full of vivid and terrible memories. It was almost impossible to believe that the things which we had seen with our own eyes and heard with our own ears were living truths. Every trace of all that had been was blotted out. The castle stood as before, reared high above a waste of desolation.

When we got home we were talking of the old time, which we could all look back on without despair, for Godalming and Seward are both happily married. I took the papers from the safe where they had been ever since our return so long ago. We were struck with the fact, that in all the mass of material of which the record is composed, there is hardly one authentic document. Nothing but a mass of typewriting, except the later notebooks of Mina and Seward and myself, and Van Helsing's memorandum. We could hardly ask any one, even did we wish to, to accept these as proofs of so wild a story. Van Helsing summed it all up as he said, with our boy on his knee.

"We want no proofs. We ask none to believe us! This boy will some day know what a brave and gallant woman his mother is. Already he knows her sweetness and loving care. Later on he will understand how some men so loved her, that they did dare much for her sake."

It really is amazing how restricting time impacts perception. For awhile, especially when Jonathon was in the castle and while the group was waiting at the pier. you could feel the tension of the wait grow more and more. Thanks.

Thanks for all your comments. This has been a great project, I really enjoyed reading the story with the imposed suspense and I found your interest, support and comments very rewarding.

I am taking suggestions for new projects. I'd like to continue this experiment, but I need some ideas. I'm having trouble finding an English translation of Dangerous Liasons that is public domain, so that one didn't start on schedule this year. I would LOVE any suggestions for other books they'd like to see in this format -- the requirements are simple: the format must be epistolary and it must be in the public domain. But all suggestions are appreciated and I can check out the format and legality.

i confess, i am a "vampire" fan, but i'm really glad to have read the ultimate vamp story--now i know the difference! i feel more rounded in my vampire reading now. :)

i also loved how virtue was so prized, and how the voluptuous and sensual were objects of fear and loathing. how differently the world views these qualities nowadays!

thank you for making this story so accessible. my three kids made it less likely that i would break down and buy the novel when it got tense waiting for the next installment, but i came close a couple times.

@Shawna,Yes, Jane Austen did do an epistolary format book, Lady Susan, a compilation of correspondence. Unfortunately the letters are not specifically dated. I am trying to work out a historically accurate timeline, but I'm not sure how it will turn out or if it will work.Thanks!

I first read Dracula many years ago, and had forgotten how powerful and interesting a story it was. This was a great job of telling one of the most horrifying tales in the English language. Well done, Whitney!

Experience Bram Stoker's Dracula in a new way -- in real time. Dracula is an epistolary novel (a novel written as a series of letters or diary entries,) and this blog will publish each diary entry on the day that it was written by the narrator so that the audience may experience the drama as the characters would have.

FYI Jonathan Harker's journal is somewhat sporadic; there is not an entry every single day. You may find yourself waiting a few days between entries. Unless a specific time is noted in the journal, entries will post in the early a.m. so that you can enjoy them with your morning O negative, uh, I mean coffee.

Please subscribe to the RSS feed so you can follow each installment and read this novel in real time!

About Me

I've been binding books regularly since about November 2007. I bind at home, which I could point out on my hand -- in Michigan, America's high five. A home I share with my husband, Casey Sorrow, our two dogs, one cat, and many, many books (classic, contemporary, musty, pristine, blank, graphic, comic, and otherwise.) I have loved books my whole life; reading them, collecting them, organizing them, generally coveting them. It was just a matter of time before I started to bind them myself, since I never suffered delusions that I may ever write them.
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